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The Star Destroyer and Imperial Military Doctrine

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Re: The Star Destroyer and Imperial Military Doctrine

#21

Post by sdrothrock »

XorNot wrote: post #20
sdrothrock wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree with the bases -- we do see that multiple times, but we don't really see as much scrambling from carriers in the same way that we see them scrambling from planetary/lunar bases, which is what makes me hesitate about characterizing this as a fast carrier DOCTRINE. I definitely remember gunships and troop transports, but my memory is just failing me when I try to think of carriers. I guess this is left over in…

You could infer we're seeing the results of the Rebels being funded for insurgency operations by their benefactors. Without large carrier ships, while relatively expensive hyperdrives on fighters might not be cost-effective, they'd also be the only survivable assets the Rebellion could field. A squad of X-wings is perfect for a hit and run strike mission because it can actually pull off the mission. You could've supp…

Very well stated! I completely agree with this and this is why I feel like the rebels don't actually have a carrier doctrine as proposed by the article.

Re: The Star Destroyer and Imperial Military Doctrine

#22

Post by TheCoelacanth »

XorNot wrote: post #20
sdrothrock wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree with the bases -- we do see that multiple times, but we don't really see as much scrambling from carriers in the same way that we see them scrambling from planetary/lunar bases, which is what makes me hesitate about characterizing this as a fast carrier DOCTRINE. I definitely remember gunships and troop transports, but my memory is just failing me when I try to think of carriers. I guess this is left over in…

You could infer we're seeing the results of the Rebels being funded for insurgency operations by their benefactors. Without large carrier ships, while relatively expensive hyperdrives on fighters might not be cost-effective, they'd also be the only survivable assets the Rebellion could field. A squad of X-wings is perfect for a hit and run strike mission because it can actually pull off the mission. You could've supp…

They also may have even more of a shortage of trained pilots than of fighters since they were willing to give a fighter to a random farm boy who happened to show up for a battle.

While the Empire can afford to throw away pilots, the Rebels need to give their pilots every chance to escape from a failed battle.

Re: The Star Destroyer and Imperial Military Doctrine

#24

Post by mschuster91 »

lchengify wrote: post #19

If you have time, I highly recommend reading other articles in Bret's blog. His write-up of how the roman legions got paid was my favorite read for a few weeks [1]. The detail of articles like this are right up there with the History of Rome podcast. [1] https://acoup.blog/2023/06/16/collections-how-to-raise-a-rom...

> I find it striking that Rome’s elections happen in late summer or early fall, when it would actually be rather inconvenient for poor Romans to spend a day voting (it’s the planting season)

Fun fact: the date the US holds their federal elections used to have the opposite intent [1] - placing it in November was because by then harvest should be over and placing it on a Tuesday allowed for farmers to observe Sunday for church-going, a day of travel and for them to be back on their farm by Wednesday for market day. But today, with way fewer people observing church, new methods of transportation and polling places everywhere, it's more of a hindrance especially for low-income workers or workers who fear they might get fired for taking time off to vote.

[1] https://www.britannica.com/story/why-are-us-elections-held-o...

Re: The Star Destroyer and Imperial Military Doctrine

#25

Post by PoignardAzur »

fbdab103 wrote: post #6

And this creates a bit of an oddity, because in the Clone Wars, the Republic fleet is essentially built around fast carriers – the Venators – and their fighters, whereas it is the CIS fleet which has specialized gunboats (along with the slower Lucrehulks that function as carriers), but by the time we get to the Empire, the doctrine has switched: the ISD is clearly a gun platform first and foremost, which carries its…

I think it makes sense without much analysis or imagining that they're preparing to fight cthulu.

The simplest explanation is that the Empire's military doctrine doesn't make any strategic sense, and Imperial decision-makers all want the biggest, scariest ships possible for selfish reasons, and everything else flows from that. They rationalize it with speeches about how fear will totally keep the rebels at bay (unlike the last ten times they tried it), but at their core they just want the biggest toys.

Re: The Star Destroyer and Imperial Military Doctrine

#26

Post by quartesixte »

vundercind wrote: post #14
fbdab103 wrote: post #6

And this creates a bit of an oddity, because in the Clone Wars, the Republic fleet is essentially built around fast carriers – the Venators – and their fighters, whereas it is the CIS fleet which has specialized gunboats (along with the slower Lucrehulks that function as carriers), but by the time we get to the Empire, the doctrine has switched: the ISD is clearly a gun platform first and foremost, which carries its…

Oh wow, I bailed on the EU well before that stuff, didn’t realize how close it ended up getting to the larger plot of the last couple Frank Herbert Dune books.

Yeah people pine for the old EU canon (Legends, as it's now called?) but the content that placed itself way after RoTJ got really bizarre. Not happy with the Sequel Trilogy's handling of the universe either, but I don't know if movie-goers would have been able to stomach something like the whole Mara Jade plot or Yuzahn Vong War.

>how close it ended up getting to the larger plot of the last couple Frank Herbert Dune books.

My understanding is that Sci-Fi writing for established franchises during the 80s - 90s was kind of a small circle of people. The influence would have been unavoidable. And they also often wrote for multiple franchises too.

Re: The Star Destroyer and Imperial Military Doctrine

#28

Post by giraffe_lady »

auselen wrote: post #27
roughly wrote: post #2

I love that this dude exists and does what he does. I don’t have the attention span to read 20 pages on Star Wars Imperial Military Doctrine, but I appreciate that it exists.

It would be a nice podcast, right?

Please just let there be one interesting thing that's not a podcast I am begging.

Re: The Star Destroyer and Imperial Military Doctrine

#29

Post by baud147258 »

auselen wrote: post #27
roughly wrote: post #2

I love that this dude exists and does what he does. I don’t have the attention span to read 20 pages on Star Wars Imperial Military Doctrine, but I appreciate that it exists.

It would be a nice podcast, right?

Some of post series on the blog have received audio versions and the author has appeared on a few podcast.

Re: The Star Destroyer and Imperial Military Doctrine

#30

Post by DylanSp »

PoignardAzur wrote: post #25
fbdab103 wrote: post #6

And this creates a bit of an oddity, because in the Clone Wars, the Republic fleet is essentially built around fast carriers – the Venators – and their fighters, whereas it is the CIS fleet which has specialized gunboats (along with the slower Lucrehulks that function as carriers), but by the time we get to the Empire, the doctrine has switched: the ISD is clearly a gun platform first and foremost, which carries its…

I think it makes sense without much analysis or imagining that they're preparing to fight cthulu. The simplest explanation is that the Empire's military doctrine doesn't make any strategic sense, and Imperial decision-makers all want the biggest, scariest ships possible for selfish reasons, and everything else flows from that. They rationalize it with speeches about how fear will totally keep the rebels at bay (unlik…

I think both the old EU and books for the current canon have explicitly mentioned this, actually.
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